Canada PM Justin Trudeau still stuck in India after plane glitch

What does the Prime Minister of a G7 country do when he suddenly finds himself stranded in a foreign country for 36 hours?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 51, chose to stay in his room in the Capital’s Lalit Hotel after his Airbus plane developed a snag. What made the situation worse was that New Delhi has not been entirely warm towards Trudeau with a tersely worded statement describing India’s “strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada” being issued on Sunday. A little after that, secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) on Sunday hastily arranged the Khalistan referendum at a gurdwara in Canada’s British Columbia, a move that did not go unnoticed in Indian government circles.

Trudeau did not have any engagement with the Indian government on Monday.

The ministry of external affairs confirmed that they had received no request for any other official engagements and the office of the minister of state who was assigned to receive Trudeau, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, also confirmed that his duty was simply to receive the Canadian Prime Minister at the airport on his arrival. There was also no indication of any engagements at the local high commission either.

“The Canadian Armed Forces continue their best efforts to get the Canadian delegation home,’’ said Mohammed Hussain, press secretary at the Prime Minister’s office, in reply to HT’s queries. “Their latest update shows an earliest possible departure of Tuesday late afternoon. The situation remains fluid.’’

And so, Trudeau spent the day in the hotel.

“Both he and his son stayed in,’’ said a person familiar with the details. The Prime Minister’s 16-year-old son, Xavier, was travelling with him, and accompanied him to Jakarta and also Singapore before flying into New Delhi. The Canadians and the Japanese booked most rooms at the Lalit, but now only about 30 of the rooms continue to be occupied by the PM’s core team and accompanying media.

“The flight plan for the ferry flight departing with the Prime Minister has not been received yet. However, the flight is expected to land at around 11pm on Monday and depart by Tuesday afternoon,” an airport official said. While the exact problem with the aircraft isn’t exactly known, the glitch has caused a bit of a controversy back home.

Commentator Tom Mulcair went on air on CTV to call it a “debacle”’. He said that it was shoddy of the government to not order new planes causing “an embarrassing issue’’. Officials in Delhi said that the aircraft is being looked at by GMR Aerotech. The frosty bilateral and the glitch, both must have evoked a sense of deja vu for Trudeau. Back in 2018, when he was in India for a state visit during which some of the same issues were raised, the A-310 he was travelling had faced technical issues when he was to depart for Delhi.

The plane involved in the current debacle is a CC-150 Polaris, one of several modified Airbus A310-300 the Canadian armed forces uses for the transport of its VIPs.

The exact aircraft, with the registration number 15001, is 35.8 years-old, according to flight tracking websites. The age of the jet, while old, is not unusual. US President Joe Biden’s Air Force One planes – two VC-25As based on the Boeing 747 – are over 36 years-old.